What is the definition of success? Is it a good job, a house without leaks? Being happy with myself and the decisions I’ve made in my life?
As anyone who knows me can attest to, I’m a perfectionist. A driven perfectionist, which sounds a lot nicer than ‘a total whack job.’ But I’ve been at the writing game for 5 years, 3 of those as a “full-time” writer (not applying for other jobs). There are days when I think publishing success will never happen, and days when I think it’s just a matter of ‘when I’m published,’ rather than ‘if I’m published.’
The ‘if’ days are rarer as time goes on. Not because I’m more confident of being published, but because I’ve been trying to redefine my definition of what success means. We live in a society that’s all about destination, when really it’s the journey that matters.
Today, I went shopping with a friend. No big deal, really. I like shopping, she needed someone to give her opinions (which as you well know, I have in large supply). But the thing of it is, she was so happy and grateful that I would do this for her. And I had to wrap my head around that: sometimes we do things for people we love, and for us it’s no big deal, for them, it’s everything. And it’s not the big things we do, but the little things.
What defines success? I think it’s the choices we make in how we make others around us feel. My friend felt loved today, like she mattered. And she should feel that way, because she is loved and she does matter. A lot.
I had the opportunity today to make someone feel worthwhile, and because of that, I feel like the world’s biggest success.
